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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

The price is right, they do sound pretty good but I wonder if there's a trade off in regard to how these things will hold up.

Don't know the answer to this. Apart from a few early complaints about keys stuck down when the PX330 deliveries started at the back end of last year, then apart from me :-( there's not been much or any problems reported with the keyboard action other than observations about looseness. It's probably too early to say.

When I got my PX330 the uppermost key C7 was hanging. I had a mechanical at home who could fix it by fiddle a bit with a screwdriver. The key had lost it's axle. So I had the chance to look inside without loosing guaranty. There is no spring inside.

Piano RalfYou are correct. There are no springs at all. The hammers are mounted in a free moving pivot. The hammer attaches to a piece of protruding plastic that is part of the plastic key. There's a hole in the middle and the hammer is kept on by a plastic keeper. Casio uses dampening material glued to the bottom of the keybed and another strip of material that is glued to the bottom cover. When you push the key down the hammer moves up (striking the damper glued to the keybed. When the key is released the hammer strikes the lower damper glued to the case. When the instrument is not in use the hammers are parked on this lower damper. This can flatten out in time and eventually cause the keys to chatter and become noisy.

Upon delivery of my first Privia PX-330, a couple of the upper end keys were partially lower. I sent it back and it's replacement was perfect and has served me well over the past year of frequent gigging. I carry it around in one of Casio's padded bags especially designed for this Privia model. The action on it feels like it did when I first got it and it's plastic case has been very durable as well. When my PX-3bk arrives, I'll keep the 330 for a practice/backup piano.

The manual for the PX-3 is available.I found it here:http://support.casio.com/pdf/008/PX3_E_1A_web.pdfI was interested how modulation will be assigned to buttons. It can be assigned only to the left button. ON PX330 it is the metronome button, which has no "on" light. So modulation will be added (send via MIDI) if you press the button. (the depth for pressed and unpressed can be assigned). If you have an organ sound and want to to control the rotating effect you can use the second swith. It is the Recorder button on the PX330, which has a light. So On and off will be toggle. So you can switch on rotary effect an switch off. This effect will be produced by the internal DSP. But how to do this via MIDI? Normally this is controlled by the MIDI CONTROL CHANGE parameter Number 1 (Modulation) . And this can be assigned to the Button 2 as well Here I found that is possible to assign a value for "Light on" and "Light off". So Just assign Button 2 to Contol Change 1 and you will have a Modulation with a fixed outputvalue during you have 2 hands free for playing.Or you can assign Button 1 for half speed and Button 2 for full speed modulation. There are more piano presets available. But I could not find sound demos yet.Unfortunately the rhythm is not available. But I don'`t understand why they also removed the metronome.I have the PX330 and would miss the drum section, helping me to keep tempo during playing. I have an external Midi master keyboard controller and have the problem that drums are not played correctly when using LOCAL OFF. (Some Instruments are missing) So I thought the PX-3 would be a solution for that. But it does not have drums any more :-( Just drum sounds. They could be played by an external MIDI device. So not the perfect keyboard for me.

Anyone who is interested in listening to sound samples from the soon to be released Casio PX-3 Demos can follow the link below. Mike Martin has posted these on a temporary page. Sounds like the EP patches have been improved quite a bit compared to what is in the PX-330. http://www.keysolutionssounds.com/casio/

Thanks for the link galaxy. Sounds pretty nice (though with some flaws, though I doubt you'll care in a gig), and definitely should give the other players a run for their money, especially at the price ranges they're talking about (~$800) and the low-20lb-ish weight.

RD-700GX + SN Piano ExpansionIf you're playing and you know it, wash your hands! If you're playing and you know it, no sanitizer!If you're playing and you know it, and don't want your keys to show it,If you're playing and you know it, clip your nails!

From what I can hear, there seems to be more clarity and detail in the EPs, but APs remain pretty much the same with the short decay and dullness in the upper-mid register. Nevertheless, it does seem like a pretty good package for the musician who needs a basic workhorse.

"you don't need to have been a rabbit in order to become a veterinarian"

Maybe the internal EQ could improve the Acoustic Piano sound. I use an external EQ for my PX-330. Maybe Mike Martin could try to optimize the AP and give us an additional demo of the piano sound. In the manual I found some more piano preset. For example the Mono Piano, which is important for stage pianist.

Hi, I am writing to see about getting my casio privia px330-bk repaired. I am attempting to bring a line level signal from my pc's soundcard into the line in (either both left and right line in or just the left/mono line in) on the privia. I can do that and hear the music i am bringing in play on the privia's onboard speakers; however, i cannot adjust the volume on the privia by using the volume knob on the priva. i can adjust the volume on the component I am using to send the line level signal to the privia, but I want to be able to adjust it on the privia. The manual indicates that I should be able to do so by using the privia's volume controller.

the manual, on page e-8, indicates:"playing output from external equipment through the piano's speakers...use commercially available cables to connect the external audio equipment to the piano's line in jacks ...line in r jack inputs sounds through the piano's right speaker while line in l/mono...

page e-7 under "connecting audio equipment or an amplifier....the digital piano automatically adjust sound output to optimize for...built in speaker output...this will also cause a change in the output quality from the digital piano's line out...whenever connectin a device to the digital piano first use the volume contrller to set the volume to a low level...after connecting, you can adjust the volume to the level you want..."the digital piano automatically adjust sound output to optimize for...built in speaker output" makes it sound like one doesn't have an option regarding volume considering it is done automatically...the part about turning the volume down before connecting an audio device seems to not apply to the line in...

Why is this important to me? I want to take the line out from my Emu 1820 audio interface (its the sound card for my pc, basically) and play in on the privia's onboard speakers, in addition to my speaker monitors attached to my pc via my audio interface and power amp, etc...however the privia drowns out my speaker monitors (my minimus 7's, old school cheap monitors). Maybe if I understood how to use Emu's Patchmix interface better I could independently control the volume for the signal sent out to the privia's speakers versus the volume for the signal to my minimus 7's, but alas, I do not...

Maybe the internal EQ could improve the Acoustic Piano sound. I use an external EQ for my PX-330. Maybe Mike Martin could try to optimize the AP and give us an additional demo of the piano sound. In the manual I found some more piano preset. For example the Mono Piano, which is important for stage pianist.

The PX-3 is definitely capable of a much wider variety of acoustic piano sounds. The EQ is very useful for this. We're working on even more demos and also some video content. I hope to be doing a LIVE online clinic very soon - which I'll post about here in this thread.

Maybe the internal EQ could improve the Acoustic Piano sound. I use an external EQ for my PX-330. Maybe Mike Martin could try to optimize the AP and give us an additional demo of the piano sound. In the manual I found some more piano preset. For example the Mono Piano, which is important for stage pianist.

The PX-3 is definitely capable of a much wider variety of acoustic piano sounds. The EQ is very useful for this. We're working on even more demos and also some video content. I hope to be doing a LIVE online clinic very soon - which I'll post about here in this thread.

Mike, the following comes not from a wish to criticize for its own sake, but from a genuine desire for Casio to provide piano players with something truly special.

Having owned the PX-310, PX-320, PX-330, and now the PX-130 (alongside instruments from other manufacturers), I am amazed at what Casio offers for the money. However, I think the PX-3 is supposed to be more of a flagship stage piano that will celebrate the Casio anniversary , and therefore needs to wow its purchasers (and their audiences). The AP sound that the latest PX series offers is good but has some serious flaws. The stretching is very evident, and when it is coupled with dubious samples (as found in the A to D range above middle-C) it spoils the pleasure of playing and listening to a certain extent. Also, as pointed out in many posts, the sample length/decay time/looping is somewhat short. This means that although fast passages sound OK, slow, sustained pieces are less good - I have noticed that most of Casio's AP demos are fast, which, naturally, masks the problem to a certain extent. These issues are found across all the main piano patches, as they seem to be derived from the same sample set.

Although I am surprised that weak samples found their way into the finished products in the first place, it would be a crying shame if they were allowed into this anniversary model. I understand that Casio has to build to a price, but given all the other features - four layers, linear morphing, triple sensors etc., it wouldn't make sense to "spoil the ship for a h'ap'orth of tar." As for length of samples, I don't know enough about the technology to know if it's possible to improve this at such a late stage of development, but if it could be done, it would help lift the new piano into a higher class.

EPs in the Privias currently suffer from having only two velocity layers. If EPs could share at least the same number of velocity layers as the APs, again this would help the instrument compete against Roland, Korg and Yamaha.

I'm really hoping Casio is listening!

"you don't need to have been a rabbit in order to become a veterinarian"

Wonderful post, voxpops. This really addresses everything that needs to be tuned/fixed in the Privias. They are such great DPs, but have so much more potential with small tweaks and fixes. Its a shame some of these things weren't taken care of during development. I'm surprised the somewhat botched samples in the G# to A# range above middle C weren't caught and fixed before production. Things like that, these small things, really are holding it back. Regardless, I still love it!

voxpops,Did I understand you to say a while back you sold your PX-330 and now you have purchased the PX-130 to replace it despite your dissatisfaction with the decay and sound in the octaves above middle C?

For Mike Martin: if you want to absolutely turn this market upside down with your products and greatly increase your market share:

* Take dewster's DPBSD and use it as a test case for your product development and testing so that the products pass every test in the DPBSD before release to manufacturing (which I'm sure will require some more R&D work)* Generally add some type of expandability, even as SD memory cards with libraries* Do a little more manufacturing QA on the keybeds and sturdy them up a bit* Heed some of the other comments in this thread and on Keyboard Corner, especially regarding MIDI controllers* Have price points at the same or similar levels (no more than $100-$200 SRP increase)

You guys are seriously so damned close it's not even funny.

RD-700GX + SN Piano ExpansionIf you're playing and you know it, wash your hands! If you're playing and you know it, no sanitizer!If you're playing and you know it, and don't want your keys to show it,If you're playing and you know it, clip your nails!

Just got done watching the demo and really enjoyed it. Mike did a great job showing the instrument off and it sounded really great to my ears. Mike said the video will be up on that site to watch soon if you missed it. I'm hoping to run into one at GC in Sacramento tomorrow when I drive through but in any case I need to find one to try out soon.

If they throw out let's say 70% of the sounds and use the freed-up memory to enhance the basic piano sounds they have a killer stage piano in their hands. I recently tried the ivory touch keybed version of the casio 830 and it was actually quite good ! Combined with their current offer of half-pedaling support and sound-input (only Clavia is so clever to add this feature on their Nord piano as well) they are almost there to compete with the big names.

As a last request they should add aftertouch to this controller and Yamaha, Kawai and Roland and left in dust, because they all think that aftertouch is something from the past. That's because decisions are recently only made by man in suits that never actually play an instrument, but just talk in marketing terms and money. Otherwise they should know that modulation wheels and aftertouch are some basic controls for playing many of the 'non-piano' sounds.

Oh...and make it USB powered as an option. FATAR Numa series are USB powered , so why not this device. Great for gigs / studio's with laptops as added sound source.

Go Casio, go - give us the perfect PX3 successor ! Just take note of the comments that are made on fora like this. I wouldn't care if it raised the price somewhat.

Strange price differentiation between countries; perhaps someone at Casio can explain (please) ? Although some of my 'requirements' are missing the Casio seemed to have a good balance between price/performance. So I went shopping..., but here in Westerm Europe the Casio bare price is € 1099, which translates to $ 1445 with the the exchange rate of today. Compared to the $ 799 in the states WITH a free carrying bag, that seems to be too much of a difference. I know stuff like this is always cheaper in the US, but even if you calculate some margin for VAT, a distributor in between and additional costs, I think 900 euro's should be a more reasonable price, considering what other brands are offering AND the fact that people buy Casio BECAUSE of the low price range and still pretty good quality. Otherwise they might stick to the well-known brands, like Y, K and R. I simply don't understand the Casio marketing guys over here - they could sell much more of their products with a little less margin..., but perhaps I'm the only one.

Not for the Netherlands; over here they offer it for € 929,= ex shipping costs and ex carrying bag. Still $ 1222,= , and that is the cheapest(!) offering to find over here, the rest is hovering between 950 and 999 euro's. The again, most shops bluntly offer it for the adviced price of € 1099 and that is again $ 1445,= in US dollars; not just a little more - but you can almost buy two units for that price in the US.

I think Casio should reconsider what it want's to be over here; a very strong competitor against the known big names, because they offer something really useful for a very sharp price, or a competitor in the same price and product range as the rest, but then they should offer the same build- and sound quality for a comparable price.

In the latter case they are still not entirely there; the piano sound is not bad , but no Roland SN piano, and the hardware is not at the same professional level as , let's say the (entry) Kawai MP series or mid range Yamaha's.

I think it's a missed opportunity (at least with the price policy over here; I assume in the states people are more than happy to spend their 799 on the PX3, which is a very competitive price !)